17 replies to this topic

[nicklegends]

joelmacool12

Montanio Town, The Town On A Mountain Near A Desert.

EpY


Another small contest this month. Cast your votes before September 30th. Good luck to both who entered.

[Ganonator]

My vote goes for Epy.

 

joelmacool12

 

joelmacool12's map is not bad by any stretch. It's actually a very competent laid out map. In certain screens it's properly laid out so there are things you can see but can't reach. It has a lot of things to visit and check out and feels pretty full.  However, there are many screens with "dead space" that can be improved upon. For example, the screen with the fortune teller is more than half empty one-color space. the screen one to the right of that seems pretty empty, and I don't expect any of these screens to have enemies on them. Visually, you can break up a lot of that monotony with some of the extra dessert tiles, and I'm surprised you haven't. 

 

What I'd really like to push home here is that there's no direction to this map at all. I don't know where you necessarily come from, but it feels like you come from the left and hit the screen with the broken down wooden building or the fortune teller first. From here, what order do you want players to come and visit screens? I'm particularly drawn to the area with the locked block guarding the triforce ground, but I want to first explore the rest of the map first. By the time I look everywhere, I've discovered a series of caves, the (locked) graveyard, minigames, shops, etc. There may even be story points here. When designing your maps/levels, you have to remember that players have to take it in one screen at a time. 

 

Again, it's not a bad map, and actually it makes me very curious where to go with it. I just liked EpY's better.

 

EpY

 

Epy's map feels like it's professionally laid out. Using only a few elements (trees, sand, water, embellishments) you created something that feels like an actual place. Great job. It's stylistically complete, and I'm sure you won't be making many changes to it before you submit it into a final project.

 

I assume you enter the map from the right, you should be able to see that there are islands but have only one place to go, down. From there, you will make decisions to come up on the ground to go to the tent or open the chest. It's really simple, it's orderly, and feels really well put together. You must have spent a boatload of time getting the trees to line up like that.

 

The only thing I would change up would be to make a reward visible from an area that you can't get to (maybe showing off a treasure chest you can't touch until you go underground). Other than that, great work.

[Eddy]

EpY's map seems like a really nice beach scene, and I can get a lot of mystery by where those caves will take you. Great job!

 

However, I actually did move over to Joelmacool's side for this one (oddly enough). There are quite a few tile and perspective errors near the bottom (especially that random bridge and the weird mountain). I gotta admit, Joel's first try on EZGBZ turned out quite successful with a nice village theme. Though like Ganonator said already, some areas are too empty, however, I felt this map had a bit more variety. Voted here.

[David]

These two maps are pretty good, I've got to say. In the end, however, I voted for EpY's map because I liked the visuals more.

[MarinaraSauce]

I voted for EpY.  Firebird is OP, please nerf.

[Jenny]

I voted for Joelmacool

 

I feel his map was less repetetive, and the visuals don't really help EpY's map.

 

I also voted for Joel due to the massive improvement seen in this map compared to his earlier works.

Edited by Duck, 01 September 2014 - 06:14 PM.

[Demonlink]

Both are solid screens and well designed, but as well, both have flaws in each:

 

Who is Joelmacool?: Like that guy who loves Amy Rose (pun) mentioned, the sudden random tiles that appear around the map doesn't quite help it, but doesn't ruin it by far. Another flaw is the "unleveled" mountain transition near the bottom where the 3 caves are, it looks... weird. Other that that, I like the structure and atmosphere in this map!  

 

Who is Epy?: Great use of Firebird, but with minor flaws as well. Seems like you forgot to layer the rest of the Ladder parts and same with Joel, the mountain levels look strange. The map does work for a desert or beach area!

 

In the end my vote went for Joel

[Eddy]

Like that guy who loves Amy Rose (pun) mentioned,

Heeeeeeeey, I don't love her... I just made 2 quests out of her... different things ya know XD

[Shane]

Who's joelmacool12? I know EpY.

 

Translation: I voted for joelmacool12, as he has a little more variety in his map. I like both though, and I would love to explore these two maps in a quest. Though, both maps could have shorter mountains as I personally think tall mountains look uninspiring and bland and should only be used if absolutely necessary.

[DarkFlameWolf]

I nulled, can I say I really don't like either of them?

[nicklegends]

I nulled, can I say I really don't like either of them?

You absolutely can. But it might help the mapmakers improve if you'd identify what aspects of their maps are lacking.

[DarkFlameWolf]

First: Too much emptiness, add more scenery.

Second: Too repetitive, vary up the scenery a bit.

[Mero]

I nulled... for the exact same reasons DFW noted above.

[Shane]

But Joelmacool's map is so cool!

[anikom15]

That poll is kind of confusing. I'm not sure who I voted for.